The White Shadow (1924) is Alfred Hitchcock’s earliest known surviving film, with 2 caveats: only 3 reels of the total 6 have been discovered & Hitchcock wrote the script and edited the film but did not direct it.

Yes, there is a staircase. No there isn’t a blonde. No, Hitchcock doesn’t make a cameo appearance (a practice that commenced three years later, in the third feature he directed, “The Lodger”). What’s most Hitchcock about it is what drives the movie: doubling, impersonation, and mistaken identity.

Hopefully The White Shadow will have a similar fate to Metropolis; now that people know there are missing reels out there, they’ll be on the lookout for them.